


Long flight home

by Womble1



Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: Gen, Paddington, Thunderbird 2 - Freeform, Thunderbirds are Go - Freeform, marmalade sandwiches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-18 03:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 821
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28860063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Womble1/pseuds/Womble1
Summary: Long journeys can be soooo dull. just a little snippet, nothing more nothing less.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Long flight home

Well this sucked

The mission had been a success, no fatalities. However, due to a combination of over-stressing the engines and some fairly interesting fire and electrical arcs, the thunderbus was now looking at a slow trundle home. Half usual speed and no auto pilot being the main impacting ones. Virgil wasn't sure that if he landed anywhere on route that he would actually be able to get back in the sky again, so slow limp it was, they were upright and safe, just sooooooooo slow. 

He never thought he would miss Gordans incessant chatter in the copilot's seat. It had started out ok: make the most of the quiet - check, listen to his own choice of music - check, enjoy the view - check. Then it started to get old, and the distance was ticking down painfully slowly on his display. 

Being stuck in the pilots seat meant some one armed stretches across the cabin to see what snacks could be unearthed from within-arms-reach storage compartments. It wasn't very profitable, he was not desperate enough to risk that canned cheese that was very much Gordans fault. 

In an attempt to make constructive use of the time Virgil had attempted to listen to some TED talks and engineering seminars. Predictably these turned out to have a soporific effect when combined with the drone of the engines and a crawling view of the horizon. 

A half bottle of flat coke was not enough to revive the caffeine deprived pilot and the mood was plummeting within the cockpit. 

It was at this point that he resorted to the time honored method, favored by siblings throughout the generations: 

“Guys, I’m Booooorrrrred, someone entertain me!” proclaimed across the airwaves with enough petulant whine to make Alan proud. 

Be careful what you wish for, is a well worn saying for a reason. Gordon started off with 15 minutes chatter on the merits of various sandwich fillings, which didn't help the grumbling in Virgil's stomach or make the canned cheese look any more inviting. After that Alan demanded help with his homework, which was, impressively, worse than the TED talks. Playing 20 questions with Kayo was worse than taking her on at poker as she wasn't giving anything away. Grandma talked him through the current contestants on “Strictly Come Dancing”, but since he wasn't even sure which country she had been streaming it from, minor celebrities were even more of a mystery. And there was no point getting started on a blow by blow account of last weeks pasodoble as even grandma could pick up that Virgil looked on the verge of politely stuffing canned cheese in his ears to make it stop.

John chipped in with a bit of disjointed conversation about current world affairs, but since it was interrupted wherever he took a call, or spoke to EOS, it made it less than coherent and more like receiving phone alerts from multiple conflicting news stations. 

Virgil realised the error of his ways, the cacophony of noise was worse than the boredom, there was a very real possibility of a headache in his future. He closed the comms line and resigned himself to watching the distance continue its slow tick down. It was then that he noticed a message ping in from Scott, it was an audio file. On closer inspection it revealed itself as an audio book, but not just any audio book, it was THE STORY. The one that they had asked to be read to them every night for years as kids. The one that could shut up even the terrible two, the one that the elder siblings would still sneakily listen to, whilst pretending to be far too old for that sort of thing. So it was with a contentedly fluffy feeling that Virgil settled down to listen to the opening chapters of “A Bear Named Paddington”. By all rights it ought to have sent him to sleep, but after all the babble of the last few hours it washed away the tension that had taken up residence between his shoulders. 

Finally Tracy island inched its way across the horizon, and it was a very chilled, slightly dozy, Virgil that flopped down on the sofas once the Thunderbus was safely tucked up ready for Brains to run diagnostics. True, tomorrow would find Virgil elbow deep in mechanical parts trying to fix his ‘bird, but for now, he was sleepy. Hungry and sleepy. OK, hungry, sleepy and with a very numb bum. As much as he loved Thunderbird 2, that was far more time than he wanted to spend cooped up in its cockpit. He pushed himself stiffly up to go in search of food, just as a sandwich appeared at his side courtesy of Scott. It was gratefully pounced upon and thanks given around a mouthful of bread…. And Marmalade? A quizzical eyebrow was raised in Scotts direction.

“Thought it was appropriate” grinned Scott


End file.
